Msgr. James Conley--New Bishop!

Here's a very welcome and encouraging announcement from the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado website!

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed the Right Reverend James D. Conley as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Denver. The Holy See made the announcement today at noontime in Rome, 4 a.m. in Denver. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput will hold a press conference today at 9 a.m., at the John Paul II Center, to introduce the new auxiliary bishop. To read the official announcement, click here. A special web page for Bishop-Elect Conley will be available after the 9 a.m. press conference.

Bishop-elect Conley, 53, is a native of Overland Park, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, and a convert to Catholicism. Currently pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., he previously served the Holy Father for 10 years as an official in the Vatican Congregation for Bishops in Rome. He has been a Catholic for 33 years and a priest for 23 years.

An interview with Msgr. Conley reveals him to be just what the Church needs at this time. Another interview is here. His biography can be found here, including information about his past Kansas City life:

In 1973, Bishop-elect Conley graduated from Shawnee Mission West high school in Overland Park and enrolled in the fall as a freshman at University of Kansas. He graduated in 1977 from University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature.

While in college, he studied in the University of Kansas’s Integrated Humanities Program, a well-known classical great books program. During his junior year, he converted to the Catholic Church on Dec. 6, 1975. His mentor and teacher in the Integrated Humanities Program, Professor John Senior, was his godfather.

Also see Fr. Z's blog where he quotes from a Kansas priest who calls the appointment of Msgr. Conley "huge!"

I am sure that you have heard about the new bishops named early this morning. [I sure have!]

Msgr. Conley, currently of the Diocese of Wichita and formerly in the Congregation for Bishops and graduate of the famous KU humanities program and now appointed to be auxiliary bishop of Denver, is to my knowledge the first bishop appointed recently who had regularly celebrated the TLM as part of his priestly service (not merely an occasional Mass here and there). [And that must have been a consideration, frankly. There is no way that it wasn’t.] I believe that he and another priest alternated celebrating the 8 AM Sunday TLM in Wichita, the only such Mass in the Diocese of Wichita. This is huge! Maybe second to Summorum Pontificum. [That would be a "YES" vote!] Now we have a bishop who is not only a friend of the Extraordinary Use of the Mass, like Arch. Burke, but one for whom the EU was an important part of his ministry. The EU is part of new bishop(s). It is part of the mainstream of the church. This is great news for fans of Tradition.

Father Brian Klingele
Archdiocese of Kansas City in KS

EXPELLED! in Kansas City/Lawrence/St. Joseph

The movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, will be showing in the Greater Kansas City area and surrounding towns beginning on Friday, April l8, 2007. Lent is over and this is is an important movie to see at these local theaters:

• Southwind in Lawrence
• Cinemark 20 in Merriam
• Pallazzo 16 in Overland Park
• Westglen 18 in Shawnee
• Studio 30 in Olathe
• Town Center 20 in Leawood
• Independence 20 in Independence
• Eastglen 16 in Lee's Summit
• Barrywoods 24 in Kansas City (north side)
  
• Northglen 14 in Kansas City
• Liberty 12 in Liberty
• Hollywood 10 in St. Joseph

A related announcement:

On the occasion of the release – April 18 - of the Ben Stein movie: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, The Intelligent Design Network is presenting a conference: Darwin, Design, & Democracy VII: Banning Intelligence from Science. The Conference starts at 9 AM on Saturday, April 19, at the Colonial Conference Center, 135 and Rosehill Road, in Overland Park. The admission price is either a ticket stub from an April 18 showing of Expelled, or else the cost of a ticket (to see the movie at 7 PM. Jack Cashill will emcee.

For more information, see the Intelligent Design Network. This promises to be a very worthwhile event!

One of our sons commented very well on the basis for the belief in non-intelligent design--atheism.

About 10-15 years ago I realized that belief in atheism was truly a 'belief', a faith. At that time, I began to tell any atheists that I met that I had great respect for their faith, since so much more of it was required to believe as they do, compared to what I believe. That really can spawn the discussion!

But it is so true, and so easy to explain. If you don't want to believe in God, you have to create an absolutely ridiculous belief system to have an alternative. Evolution is just one of many parts of the atheistic system of beliefs.

And, as it is truly a belief, one held close to the very core of a person's spriritual center, it will be fanatically guarded and defended from any 'attack'. It sounds like this is what that movie is about.

Theism and atheism beliefs are selected by persons, not because of what they know or have discerned, but because of what they desire. If they do not desire to be submissive to a God, if they instead want to be God, the center of the universe, they will latch onto atheism. It is the ultimate selfishness.